Interactive Button Mapping for Digital TV Remote Controls
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional digital TV remote controls with four color buttons can be confusing and cluttered, increasing complexity, but omitting them reduces interactive service functionality.
Innovation Solution
A media receiver with a single interactive button that maps user inputs to virtual color buttons based on contextual information, such as channel, content, or user behavior, allowing access to multiple interactive services without modifying the service functionality.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If four colour buttons are included in the remote control, then interactive service functionality is provided, but the remote control size and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single interactive button on the remote control is designed to perform multiple functions by mapping to different virtual colour buttons (red, green, yellow, blue) based on contextual information. This allows one physical button to replace four colour buttons while maintaining full interactive service functionality across different programme contexts.
Solution Approach 2:
Virtual colour buttons are introduced as an intermediary layer between the single physical interactive button and the interactive services. The mapping function acts as a mediator that translates the single button press into context-appropriate virtual button presses, enabling full interactive functionality without requiring multiple physical buttons.
2Adaptability or versatility
If four colour buttons are included in the remote control, then interactive service functionality is provided, but user confusion increases
Solution Approach 1:
The single interactive button serves multiple functions dynamically, adapting its meaning based on the current programme context. This eliminates user confusion about which button to press, as there is only one button regardless of how many interactive services are available, while still providing access to all interactive functionalities.
Solution Approach 2:
The functional parameter of the interactive button changes dynamically based on contextual information from the programme. The button's mapping to specific virtual colour buttons (red, green, yellow, blue) is not fixed but adapts according to the programme type, genre, and available interactive services, reducing user confusion while maintaining versatility.
3Device complexity
If the number of interactive buttons is reduced, then remote control complexity is reduced, but interactive service functionality is limited
Solution Approach 1:
Virtual colour buttons are created as software copies of the physical interactive button. These virtual buttons exist in the digital domain and can be mapped to the single physical button through the mapping function, allowing full interactive service functionality to be accessed without requiring multiple physical buttons.
Solution Approach 2:
The mapping between the single physical interactive button and the virtual colour buttons is dynamic rather than static. The mapping function continuously adapts the button's function based on contextual information from the programme, enabling one physical button to provide access to multiple interactive services that would traditionally require four separate buttons.
Data Source
AI summary
A media receiving device receives media programmes with associated interactive services, a selected one of which can be triggered by a user pressing a selected one of a plurality of interactive buttons. The media receiving device is provided with a remote control having fewer than said plurality of interactive buttons, and preferably only one such interactive button. The media receiving device maps the interactive button pressed on the remote control to a selected virtual button, based for example on contextual information available to the device.